... FOR "FRANCHISE FACE-OFFS (PART 3 - 'THE MATRIX' EDITION)"

"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

When The Matrix opened in March of 1999, it hit like a breath of pure oxygen – and a slap in the face to every pretender-to-the-throne action/sci-fi extravaganza since George Lucas' original Star Wars. (More than that, it made those movies look positively old-fashioned by comparison – The Phantom Menace included, which still had a good month and a half to go before its official release date.) Andy and Larry Wachowski's genre-busting fusion of all things cyberpunk, Hong Kong action cinema, and Japanese anime didn't just stand the special effects industry on its head; it turned into a full-fledged pop culture phenomenon. "Bullet time" became a cliché. Wire work and extensive kung fu choreography became the norm for almost every action sequence that followed. It gave Keanu Reeves – he of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Paula Abdul's "Rush Rush" music video, and Speed – his most iconic role since, well, Bill & Ted. It even spawned its own religion, of sorts.

... FOR "THE DAWNING OF CINEMA MAGIC"

As a warm-up for the Documentaries entry in our "Best Of The Decade" series (due in a few days - I promise), I thought I'd treat you (or re-treat you, for those already in the know) to just a few of the earliest recorded films in history - five clips, to be exact. These are nifty little glimpses of everyday life - some only a couple seconds long - that were mind-blowing to audiences of the day. (In other words, they made lots and lots of money. Nickels of it, as a matter of fact.)

Some of you might be asking, "How come these things are so darn short?" Well, that's because the technology was just in its infant stages. After all, "motion pictures" are just that: a series of frames played in sequence, one after another at high speed, to give the illusion of actual movement. These clips are the earliest example of that. Innovative minds such as Eadweard Muybridge, William Kennedy Dickson, and Thomas Edison invented the camera equipment that helped usher in the new age of cinema as we know it.